File:Medieval seal matrix (FindID 714827).jpg

Medieval cast copper alloy pedestal type seal matrix with a circular face and unusually well carved detail. The matrix has a central design of a man's and woman's head, facing three quarters in towards each other with the faces, hair and necks finely moulded and lips emphasised. The man is on the left on the impression. He has outward-curling jaw-length hair and looks very much like the bust on a coin; he wears a top with a high wavy neckline. The woman is wearing a short draped veil with her forehead bare and a V-necked top.

The design is within a pellet line border. Around the inner border is the legend, starting at 12 o'clock with a star initial mark and reading BAISEZ MOI En EBOnE FOY. There is a second pellet line border around the legend at the outer edge of the matrix, now lost in places to damage at the edge.

The central pedestal type handle rises from the face in six facets, narrowing as it rises to a waist from which it expands out slightly to a collar. The collar starts with a narrow, slight raised ring, then a more pronounced, broader ring then a second, broader but less prominent ring. Above the collar the handle ends in a flat, transverse loop with a probably circular hole drilled through it. Most of the loop is missing to an old break with just the start of each side remaining. Four indented dots are arranged in a lozenge on the handle, adjacent to the lower edge, at a position corresponding to 12 o'clock on the matrix design, to allow the seal to be orientated correctly when stamping down.

The seal matrix is now 19.3mm in diameter at the face by 15.3mm tall; it weighs 6.45 grams.

The legend can probably be translated into modern French as baise moi en foi abonie (Kiss me in increased faith), ebonir and enbonir being known Medieval varients of abonier, meaning 'to make well disposed', 'to accept' or 'to win over'. Alternatively the E at the start of EBOnE can be seen simply as a mistake and the end of the inscription translated as bonne foi, good faith, a construction known on other matrices, for example in the legend GREET MOI EN BONE FOY (Harvey and McGuiness 1996:115) (although the GREET in this legend may have been mis-read, as CREET MOI (believe in me) is a more likely Anglo-French phrase).

Pedestal seal matrices with small dies and impersonal, often romantic legends (termed love and loyalty seals), became increasingly popular at the end of the 13th century (Harvey and McGuiness ibid:88-90,) suggesting a date of c.1300-1400 for this example.